


Kaleidoscope

by kathkin



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Space Dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 19:53:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3353291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathkin/pseuds/kathkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zoe has trouble sleeping and discovers that she and Jamie are more alike than she thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kaleidoscope

Theoretically, it was Zoe’s first night in the TARDIS. In practice, it all seemed like nonsense. The Doctor had shown her to a bedroom – which was functional, if odd, a mix of the kind of utilitarian furnishings she was used to from the Wheel and old-earth furniture that looked like it had been scavenged from a jumble sale – and declared it _hers_ , but perched on the bed, with nothing to unpack, it didn’t feel very hers. Putting what clothes she had in the cupboard had taken all of sixty seconds. Working out how to use the lights had taken another thirty. 

Zoe could make the room as dark as she wanted, but open the door and step out and the corridor was as stark and white and bright as ever. It wasn’t night, really. It wasn’t day either. It wasn’t any time to speak of. There was no clock in the room – her room – and she didn’t want one. She didn’t see the point.

Of course, none of that would have stopped her from going to sleep, for she’d been awake for almost seventeen hours so she ought to sleep and the TARDIS was in a holding pattern that the Doctor assured her would last at least twelve hours, so there was time. It was just that she wasn’t tired. Why bother going to sleep, when she wasn’t tired and it wasn’t night, or any time to speak of?

She was filled with restless, nervous energy. She hopped off the bed and paced the length of the room, once, twice, three times. She’d been sitting in her room for well over an hour, by her reckoning, waiting to get sleepy. She’d reasoned that given some time and some peace and quiet she’d probably calm down, but there she was, pacing.

Well, if she was going to be awake she might as well _do_ something. She slid open the door and stepped out into the white corridor. The Doctor, she thought, would probably be up. She wasn’t altogether sure the Doctor slept the way a normal person did. Probably he had better things to do with his time. She retraced her steps, following the twists and turns back to the console room, where she’d last seen him.

She stopped at the last turning, listening carefully. She could hear him moving about and see a faint shadow upon the white floor, flitting by as he walked past the doorway. She hesitated, suddenly nervous, not at all looking forward to explaining herself – _yes, Doctor, I know you said it was bed time but I’m really not tired, and I’m not a child, and, and_. She pushed those silly thoughts aside, steeled herself, and stepped around the corner.

There _was_ someone in the console room. But it wasn’t the Doctor; it was Jamie, standing all by himself by the console. His arms were folded across his chest and he was rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, his gaze fixed upon something outside her view. At the sound of Zoe’s footsteps, he started. His head snapped about to face her. “What are you doing up?”

“What are _you_ doing up,” Zoe retorted. She stepped fully into the room. Jamie was watching her, an almost guilty look about his face.

He turned back to whatever he’d been looking at before she came in. “Cannae sleep.”

Zoe crossed the room and rested her hands lightly upon the edge of the console, as if she knew what she was doing there. “Too much energy?”

“Aye. No. No’ enough, really,” he said, which didn’t make the slightest bit of sense. Though despite the lack of sense, she thought she understood. She was surprised. Jamie didn’t seem the sort to have trouble sleeping. He seemed to be able to sleep anywhere – with the possible exception, apparently, of his own bed.

“I can’t sleep either,” she said. “What are you looking at?” He motioned at the scanner screen. She hadn’t bothered to look at it, assuming that it would be blank, since they weren’t really anywhere.

But it wasn’t blank. There was a drifting, shifting pattern upon it, rather like a kaleidoscope, or the shapes you could see when you closed your eyes and pressed down hard upon the lids. The shapes and colours were moving constantly, subtlety, and Jamie had cocked his head to watch it better.

Zoe walked around the console to stand beside him, to see better. They stood in silence for a minute or two, watching the pattern upon the scanner shift erratically.

“If you came looking for the Doctor, he’s no’ here,” said Jamie.

“I can see that,” said Zoe. “Where is he?” Jamie shrugged.

“I dinnae know where he goes,” he said. “He’ll turn up soon enough.”

“He usually does,” Zoe agreed.

It was strange, she realised, for she had looked at Jamie and thought _here is someone with whom I have nothing whatsoever in common_. Because they must have at least one thing in common, though nothing tangible or logical; that spark, that drive that let you drop everything and run off to see the universe. That willingness to abandon everything and everyone familiar, for the sake of this life – for the sake of the Doctor.

She had a sense that she ought to say something, rather than stand beside Jamie in silence – but then again, perhaps not. Perhaps silence was proper on this sort of occasion. 

Jamie broke the silence before she could make her mind up either way. “I come in here sometimes when I cannae sleep,” he said. “It gets so quiet in my room.”

It was never truly quiet in the console room. There was an ever-present hum of circuits and unseen engines, a faint, steady vibration in the floor. “I don’t mind the quiet,” Zoe mused. As a matter of fact, she was used to it. “I just can’t relax.”

“Aye, well we’ve had quite a day,” said Jamie. Quite a _week_ , really. Zoe’d been trying to keep track of how many days it had been since leaving the Wheel. It was harder than she’d expected. Maybe she should invest in a calendar and start checking off the days.

“How long have you been doing this?” she asked.

Jamie cocked his head. “D’you mean standing about here or travelling with the Doctor?”

She’d meant the latter, but the former interested her as well. “Either, really.”

Jamie considered the question – both questions – then shrugged. “I’m nae sure.”

“Months?” Zoe guessed.

“Aye, mibbe,” said Jamie after a moment’s consideration. He nodded at the scanner. “What d’you think it is?”

“Probably just static,” Zoe mused. “You know – atmospheric noise. Radiation. Something like that.”

“Aye, that,” said Jamie, nodding as if he understood. “It’s pretty, whatever it is.”

“Yes, I suppose so,” Zoe said. She still couldn’t face going to bed. She ought to find something else to do.

Jamie tore his eyes away from the scanner and said, “y’know, if you’re nae sleeping and I’m nae sleeping, mibbe we should do something else.”

“You mean other than standing around staring at static?” said Zoe. Jamie nodded. “Probably.” She considered further. “Do you know any card games?”

“Aye, a few,” said Jamie.

Probably not any interesting ones, though. “I’ll teach you,” Zoe said, resolute.

She spent the rest of the evening – if you could call it that – teaching Jamie how to play cribbage, with limited success. She must, at some point, have fallen asleep, for she woke up an indeterminate number of hours later, curled up upon a sofa in one of the TARDIS’s funny little rooms. Jamie was sleeping soundly beside her. There was a single blanket tucked firmly over both of them.

She extricated herself, careful not to wake Jamie, tidied away the cards and cribbage board, and went to find the Doctor.

He was in the console room – goodness knows where he’d been before – and he glanced up when she came in, more than a little rumpled from sleeping in her clothes. “Good morning, Zoe,” he said, even though it wasn’t morning. “Is Jamie still sleeping? We’re about to land.”

“He was asleep on the sofa when I left,” said Zoe.

“Oh yes, I found the pair of you sleeping in my drawing room,” he said. “I didn’t like to wake you. You looked so peaceful.”

The TARDIS column stilled with a _thunk_. As if that was his cue, Jamie stumbled into the room, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Are we landing?”

“Just landed,” said the Doctor. “Did you sleep well? You looked very cosy.”

Zoe and Jamie exchanged a look, a silent acknowledgement that yes, the Doctor _had_ found them asleep together and tucked them in. “Aye. I slept alright.”

“Me too,” said Zoe cheerily.

“I’m very glad to hear it,” said the Doctor. “Now, who’s for breakfast?”


End file.
